


Purple, Kinda Lumpy

by miss_nettles_wife



Category: Eerie Indiana
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Typical Danger, F/M, Gratuitious references, M/M, Much introspection, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-26 09:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14399010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_nettles_wife/pseuds/miss_nettles_wife
Summary: But really, Marshall shouldn't have been surprised by the identity of his soulmate. Why would it have been anyone else?





	Purple, Kinda Lumpy

**Author's Note:**

> this is admittedly mediocre, but I believe in Marshall/Simon

Soulmates are a complicated sort of thing.

Marshall had done the right thing. When his soulmate mark showed up at age fourteen; he of course, sent a picture of it off to the national database. With ninety dollars for a search. His mark was an ugly little thing between his pointer and middle finger that if looked at in the right light resembled a blurry picture of a UFO. It was also purple, and sort of lumpy to the touch. It resembled his mothers, which he had seen only twice in his whole entire life. Like most married people, she covered hers up to state she was not in fact looking.

Hers was also purple, and located on the slide of her hand and looked a bit like Texas. For as long as he’s known her, she wore a pair of tight-fitting drivers gloves with little knobbly bits to help her grip things. His father's was on his upper arm, red and shaped like an elephant drawn by someone who had a very basic idea of what an elephant was explained to them by someone speaking German (and they didn’t speak German).

Syndi’s was the same color as her coral lipstick and looked like it too. Janet Donner had one on her face she covered up with a band-aid that resembled a paw print. Melaine Monroe had one, and after her heart transplant woke up with an identical one on her other wrist. Todd McNulty’s looked like a bass guitar and was ‘Chuck Berry Red’. Whinnie Swanson had one that matched Phyllis Stofer and they both looked like ride on lawn mowers and they were both on their stomachs.

Dash X didn’t have one as far as Marshall knew, he had marks all right but not that sort of mark. But most people bought them as very unfortunate marks. Mister Radford, if he had one then Marshall hadn’t seen it. Same with Mayor Chisel.

He got his results a month later with no matches found in the database, but he’d expected that. His mother put the letter in a drawer with hers, his fathers and Syndi’s matching ones and told him that it wasn’t the end the world, which he already knew. Despite his weirdness fascination, Marshall knew all the stats. His chances were low, so he should ignore it, ya ya ya. Maybe calling it ya ya ya was mean, she was only trying to help him, but he didn’t need it. He hadn’t even thought about who his soulmate might be.

#

It was a quiet evening.

They don’t get too many quiet evenings in Eerie so they were determined to make the few that they did get. Komader Cody marathons were still good, even after all these years. Good shows didn’t age, Marshall thought as the images flickered across the screen. He could probably recite all the lines if he had to, both of them have seen it so many times by now. It’s mostly background noise for their own personal television watching bubble.

In his lap was a half-finished bowl of popcorn but they’ve gone cold and stale having been there for some time now. Most of the good ones were eaten leaving only the white and butterless ones, burnt ones and kernels. They’re always in tune with each other at times like this. Outside, a storm is whipping the windows and in a nearby room, he can hear Dash click-clacking on the computer keyboard. Marshall has no idea what he does in there, but it doesn’t involve either of them. So long as no one tried to make a phone call than it wouldn’t.

In stories, soulmates meet all the time. Todd and Donna were soulmates. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Romeo and Juliet. In the news, you heard all sorts of stories about people meeting and then losing their soulmate. Recently, he’d read a piece about a couple in which one man named Matthew waited over fifty years for his soulmate, named Charlie. It made him glad that he’d never have to worry about something like that.

Sometimes, when he looks at the past he wonders why on Earth it would have crossed his mind that his soulmate would be anyone other than Simon.

#

The year that Simon found his out Marshall was his soulmate was the year that Marshall spent in another universe.

The whole story was long and a bit boring, but suffice to say it involved Janet Donner, creepy garbage men and taking refuge with a begrudging Mitchell and Stanley. It was the year that he got his mark. It was also the year his parents almost murdered one another.  It was lastly the year that Harley first displayed a talent for Economics.

Simon spent most of the year taking more than a nip of Java in his black cows.

His only method of communication with Marshall was over Mitchell’s computer.

Across-pond: this Radford doesn’t make milkshakes half as good as ours

Simon83: can anyone?

Across-pond: good point. Have I mentioned everyone here is Canadian?

Simon83: Everyday.

Across-pond: it’s really jarring. But you probably don’t need to know that. How are you??

Simon83: I got my mark today

Across-pond: pics or it didn’t happen

(suffice to say that Simon did not risk sending a picture over a transdimensional connection)

Simon83: I miss you

Across-pond: Im not very good at fighting weirdness without mymost trusted & treasures assosicate

(this poorly spell checked message was probably as close as Marshall got to being emotional across the internet)

Simon83: my mark looks like a UFO

Across-pond: for real?

Simon83: for real. I’ve already met my soulmate, too.

Across-pond: do I know them?

Simo83: you are them.

Marshall had then ignored him for the better part of a week. He and Janet went cross country to escape a new crew of creepy garbage guys. Simon didn’t know that. He thought Marshall was mad at him for some reason. He considered any number: being too young, being a boy, being a redhead, being Simon. He went on every afternoon to send him messages

Simon83: I’m sorry, Mars.

Simon83: don’t be mad

Simon83: this doesn’t need to mean anything.

Simon83: please message me back

Simon83: you’re my best friend, and I don’t want to stop being best friends.

Simon83: If you won’t talk to me than I can get Dash.

-x: what the hell is wrong with u?

Simon83: Your parents don’t know and they don’t need to know. Only Dash knows and no one else needs to.

-x: yr being a big baby slick

Simon83: I love you

-x: the kid tells u he luvs u and u still wont message back. cold.

Across-pond: Im sorry.

Across-pond: garbage men. Janet & me runnin. No time.

[Across-pond has left the room]

And then he went dark for two months.

Two nerve-wracking months of nothing, from Mitchell, Stanely, or Marshall. Melaine reported daily that Janet’s account was dormant too. The Tellers begin to suspect that something has gone wrong. Simon’s mark burns constantly. Even though he’s doing his best not to show it Dash is worried too. Melaine regularly threatens to go through the portal and get them herself. Simon doesn’t know what effect that will have on her heart, and the idea of not being here when Janet gets back is enough to keep her put. Janet's parents begin to wonder if her trip to the next state to see that art gallery is legit.

Marshall pops back into existence on a Sunday through Simon’s father's television set. He pulls himself out of the television awkwardly. He’s not the same. For a start, he was banged up pretty bad. Then there was the missing a finger on his left hand (curiously, there was no blood, just like it had always been missing and everyone acts like it has), and his right eye had gone purple. But none of that really mattered because he was here and alive. Simon can’t remember being so overjoyed.

Janet followed after him in only slightly better shape. Her lips have never stopped being purple but that didn’t matter to any of them.

Nothing mattered besides getting them both into a hot bath and delivering them home.

#

Marshall told him on no uncertain terms that they’d come back to the soulmates thing at a later date. When Simon was older. When Simon asked how old, Marshall said twenty-one. Anyway, Marshall was in no state to be making big life choices like soulmate stuff. But he did get a little kiss on the cheek, his first if anyone was counting. Soon after he got back, Marshall invested buys a pair of nice driving gloves.

He drops out of high school. Janet does not, in fact, she’s more determined than ever to graduate and ‘get the Hell outta this town’. Fair enough. Marshall is more content to spend his free time working at the World O’ Stuff and staying home. Dash calls it adjustment, Simon calls it trauma. Simon excels at school, he always has. He wants to look after animals, animals are so good. They don’t judge, they just are. He likes that a lot, the idea of just being.

He never lets Marshall drift too far out to sea, this whole time. Whatever’s going on with him, he keeps Simon well out of it. They still investigate weirdness. They still have an evidence locker. Things are the same but the fire is gone from Marshall’s belly and there seems to be no way to bring it back.

Marshall is insistent that he should graduate and go to college. After some discussion, he ends up going with the money that was meant to send Marshall. He studies to become a vet and keeps in touch mostly over the internet. It’s good to get away. Being separated from Marshall burns like a missing limb but he can adjust. He’s good at that, adjusting.

Marshall, in the meantime, experiments. His parents send him off to every phycologist in town until he has a laundry list of drugs to take. Simon has no idea what Marshall told them, but it wasn’t the truth. Marshall also tries different drugs and quits his job. Simon has no idea how to help him. Dash did, and sent a message declaring his intent to partner with Marshall and solve mysteries for money. It does the trick and Marshall is more like himself than he has been in years.

He does eventually return to Eerie, now a college graduate with a job at the local clinic. They have a party to celebrate his return. Marylin organizes the whole thing, so it’s a lovely function to attend. She’s pulled out every stop he can think of. Catered food, music, everyone he’s ever met must be there, with an exception of two very specific people who Marylin assures him is not for lack of invitation. He doesn’t dwell on it.

After a while and of its own accord his body seeks out Marshall. He's alone on the landing for the stairs, sipping something out of a glass.

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I missed you.”

“You always say that.”

Marshall says it affectionately, and Simon presses up against him in the limited space.

“I always mean it.”

“You shouldn’t. You’re one of the smartest people I’ve ever met but I don’t ever see you use that big brain of yours.”

“Don’t talk like that. You’re my soulmate, it’s my job to miss you.”

Marshall looked pained at the comment, but he doesn’t elaborate.

“I missed you too. Like I was missing a foot or something. I hoped you would stay away.”

“Why?”

“Did I ever tell you why Mitchell doesn’t talk to us anymore?”

“No.”

“When I was there, in his dimension, I couldn’t save Stanley. He got caught and recycled and I…Couldn’t save him.”

“So that’s what happened to your finger.”

“I felt it. Like he was my soulmate.”

“You are the same person.”

“Now Mitchell is going to go the rest of his life without his soulmate, and Stanley….”

Simon put one of his hands on top of Marshall's, which was resting on his leg.

“When I got back, I just wanted things to go back to normal. I thought that I could do that, but I couldn’t. I realized that if I couldn’t save Stanley, then what chance did I have of saving you?”

“Marshall -“

“I don’t…I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist. If you’re not in Eerie than you can’t get hurt and you won’t need me. I just want things to go back to how they were, even if they can’t.”

“Believe It or not, Marshall, this whole soulmates business is a two-person thing. I don’t need you to protect me anymore. I’m an adult now.”

“I know that. But it’s my job to protect you.”

“And it’s mine to protect you. Things can’t be how they were, but they can be something new.”

“So that’s what you want this to be? A new beginning?”

“I’m Simon, you’re Marshall and we’re soulmates. That’s all we need to be, isn’t it?”

Simon does not bust out the ‘we’ll revisit it when you’re twenty-one’ thing.

“I guess so. But for now, can you be my best friend?”

“I would love to.”

#

Marshall doesn’t wear his driving gloves anymore.

He’s not concerned about if people know who his soulmate is, if anything, he wants people to know.

No one was surprised when he finally started telling people. He shouldn't have been either. He and Simon had been attached at the hip since they were children. All the signs had been there for soulmates too. But people give them a few congratulations and tell him that they’re happy for them. Some (Dash) remind him that if he ever hurts Simon then he’ll have to get the hell outta dodge and change his identity.

His parents are so happy, even if they’ve known for so long. His mother thinks that Simon will straighten him out (she was right.). His father is happy that no one will ever question if Simon is his son ever again (no one ever had). They get their picture in the paper as two of so few soulmates out there in the world. Dash laughs because he thinks that the face Marshall makes is funny looking.

Simon is holding his hand and comparing their soul marks. He does this all the time, it’s nothing to be concerned about. He doesn’t understand the appeal, but that’s okay. He doesn’t need to understand everything.

The television flickers to the end of the final recording as the show that he accidentally recorded the first ten minutes of after Komander Cody aired begins. He raised the remote and flickered the television off. It’s not a new or fancy television, it’s his parents old one and it does the job perfectly fine. Outside, a roll of thunder sends Simon’s foster dog into their laps and Dash swears as the internet cuts out.

Even if it’s just for the moment, things are good.

Simon kisses him on the cheek.

Things are better.

 


End file.
